Spoils of War
by tilinelson2
Summary: Suddenly the good and free-spirited Alair has to face one of the bleakest Layan realities.
1. Beginnings

The green-haired woman took the spaceship in order to return to the purple moon. She had just been released from captivity and she had just one idea in her mind. She would do anything to stop the ongoing war. But she knew the task would not be easy. "_How will I convince my brother to stop this war?" _Easier said than done, the young woman used the time of the voyage to imagine arguments to use against his brother, counterarguments to refute his answers, but to no avail. She knew that, when she faced her brother, the conversation would take an unplanned route and she´d have to be very careful to not let the things get completely out of her hands.

Alair released a deep sigh and decided to watch the stars through the small window on her side. The automatic spaceship flew fast to the programmed destination. She was one of the few who knew the secrets of their spaceship planet. She was one of the few who had known Laya and Orakio. More than that, she was the only female company of the holy Laya and her sister, so she knew things only her and Laya´s younger sister knew. She was also saddened by the things she learned about her fellow Layans while she was being held in captivity by Orakians.

Finally the ship sped down. The lights on the panel demanded her to buckle the seat belts. She did so and the ship gradually slowed down till it touched the artificial moon´s surface. "_Back to Dahila. But I can´t say I feel relieved. It is time to face my brother...". _Alair unfastened the seat belts, waited for the automatic door to open and climbed down the stairs. She was back again in the solitary moon who served as her home, or prison, in the last 1,000 years. She walked slowly through the castle aisles, anticipating what would not be a pleasant conversation with her brother. As she entered the castle main hall, she was stopped by one of the guards. He called another guard, who entered the room to announce her to her brother Lune.

"I can´t believe I am being treated like that in my own home."

"Forgive me, lady Alair, but your brother Lune has given us orders to not let anyone inside without his permission."

"I see. Well, there is nothing we can´t do about it, right? I´m just his little sister..."

The guard sighed at the sarcastic remark of the woman. After a minute of waiting, the guard returned, giving permission for Alair to enter her brother´s room. She entered the room reluctantly, afraid of what would be her brother´s mood. As she caught a glimpse of his face, she released a sigh of relief as he looked content to see her back.

"Alair! My dear sister! Thank Laya you are back, safe and sound!"

"Oh, brother, it is over! We can end this terirble war now."

"End the war? Never! We should have crushed these damned followers of Orakio in the first opportunity. No one will stop me now. I´ll only stop when this disgraceful race is completely wiped out from our planet."

"No, brother, please, stop this war. I´m back, you don´ t have reasons to fight them anymore." Alair already realized she had lost the control of the situation.

"No reasons? I was there when that devil killed most of our people. Don´t you remember, he was the one who trapped us here. He was the one that killed our beloved Laya. Now, the wretched descendants of that unholy man are still trying to kill us. I can´t leave this treacherous act unpunished. They will learn for once and for all to not mess with us Layans."

"Please, brother, don´t do that. Not every Orakian is evil."

"Not every Orakian is evil? What do you have in your mind, stupid sister? They have just kidnapped you and you are on their side."

"It is true that they kidnapped be, but it was a good and fair Orakian prince who released me from captivity. They apologized for their mistake. It is over, I don´t hold a grudge against them."

"Good and fair and Orakian can´t be used in the same sentence unless there is a negative word linking them."

"No, he was really good, fair, he treated me well, he was respectful."

"Alair!" Lune slapped the face of her sister with the back of his hand. "Did you fall in love with a damned Orakian! I can´t believe that, my own sister!"

"I... I... didn´t..." Alair couldn´t hold back the tears. "But.. but... he is fair and good!"

"Alair!" Lune raised his hand at his sister again. "You bring shame to my family! You bring shame to Laya´s memory associating yourself with a damned Orakian! I´d rather see you dead than making love to a damned Orakian."

"You don´t know what you are talking about. Don´t pretend you didn´t know, Laya herself was in love..." Alair eyed her brother in a defiantly manner.

"Shut up!" Lune slapped her sister again, this time being such a strong blow that threw her Alair to the floor, where she stood weeping. "If you say that again of our beloved Laya, I promise I´ll kill you! It doesn´t matter if you are my sister or not, I can´t let someone who professes the greatest blasphemy against Laya alive!"

"Lune... listen to me..."

"Enough of you! Guards! Take Alair out of my sight or I´ll have to take drastic measures!"

Four guards entered the room and dragged Alair out of the castle´s main hall. Lune just turned his back to his sister. "Brother..." Alair screamed to no avail. "_Laya, oh Laya, why did the things went this far?" _She knew that as as long as she had a father, a brother or a husband, she would just be a powerless and useless Layan woman.


	2. Weeks Later

Prince Nial, followed by his loyal androids Mieu and Wren plus the Layan rebel Ryan and Laya, the legendary Laya´s younger sister, made their their way to the purple moon Dahila. Arriving there, Lune was expecting them to fight them to death. After fighting their way through the dangerous dungeon maze, the group was finally facing the legendary Layan general.

Alair stood locked in her room. She was anxious and confused. Anxious because of the ongoing war. She sought peace and failed. She regretted not staying with Nial. She thought she could convince her brother to stop the war, but she was utterly ignored by him. She was also confused because she had learned that this time it wasn't a Orakian-Layan war, there were Layans fighting her brother as well. She couldn't wish bad things for her brother, but deep inside she wished that he was defeated.

The battle has very fierce, with Lune clearly overpowering his opponents, but the team work of the opponents started making the difference when all the combatants started to feel tired. A crippled Lune was no match for five strong opponents and, despite the shame, he had to surrender to his opponents.

"Laya´s sister! I have no wish to fight you! The war is at an end! I´ll recall my armies!"

"Finally!" Laya rejoiced. "The peace my sister always dreamed with has come today!"

"No more struggles between Orakians and Layans, we will live at peace from now on! Mieu, Wren, I order you to never attack again a Layan." Nial acted as the ruler of both people. "Lune, you will swear you and all the Layans will never attack an Orakian again!"

"I swear. I have to thank you for rescuing my sister back them."

"I just did what was my duty. Well, I think it is time to finally unite Orakians and Layans as just one people."

"Prince Nial, forgive me for interrupting you. I have been told you have a difficult choice. I can see Laya wishes to be with you, but you can have Alair as well. It is your right, as a conqueror of Dahila."

"Alair..." Nial was not expecting that news. "I think I´ll have to think about that."

"Take your time, my lord."

"You don´t need to call me lord, Lune."

"As you conquered us fairly in the war, I can´t do anything else. You are our lord from now on."

"Well, be the way you wish."

Lune returned back to his room, where Alair was kept locked, in safety. At the sight of her brother, wounded, she was startled, with her heart racing like mad inside her chest.

"What happened, dear brother?"

"We were conquered by that damned Orakian prince."

"Peace, at last!"

"How can you rejoice when we had just been defeated?"

"It doesn´t matter for me. It only matters that there will not be Layans killing Orakians and Orakians killing Layans anymore."

"Well, you must be happy that now you can marry that wretched Orakian. You bring shame to us, wishing the Orakians defeated us. Well, I think every Layan but me has brought shame to Laya. That rogue, Ryan, is with them."

"I bet he was just thinking in the good of the planet."

"Good, eh? Now I am the villain. Well, to make it worse, Laya, our Lady´s sister was with them."

"Laya? That are excellent news! See, you are the only one who was against them. We should have stopped this stupid rivalry between our people and their people a thousand years ago. Better late than never."

"That damned girl seems to be in love with that Orakian. I wonder what our lady Laya would think about that."

"Oh, really? Well... I´d like to talk with them..."

"You won´t. I´ve offered you to that damned Orakian, as it is his right, but you won´t talk with him."

"Offered me?"

"Yes. But forget about talking with that rascal. I forbid that."

Alair started crying. She had to face a terrible reality. She was being treated as a spoil of war by her brother. He had offered her to Nial because he considered Nial as a conqueror of Dahila. Although Alair had developed a liking for Nial, she wanted to know him better. "_I´d like to marry him even if it was just to end this stupid Layan - Orakian war. I´d like to know him better, he seems to be a good man. He is handsome as well, but I think we could build together a brighter future for everyone. But he has Laya... she is more charming, prettier, more powerful. She has free access to him. If he marries her, it will be because he really likes her. If he marries me, it will be because I´m his property now. I´m just part of the spoils of the war. That is not fair, Laya, our Holy Lady. That is not fair... Life is not fair." _Alair broke down in tears and stayed crying for the rest of the day, not eating, not talking to anyone.

On the following day, Nial came to Lune and announced he had made up his mind. Lune obliged Alair to dress herself with her best dress and be ready for an audience with prince Nial. Alair was feeling so bad, depressed, hopeless, that she preferred to be left alone, but she knew she was just an object for her brother. She was now Nial property, her fate was at his hands. She dressed herself in a stunning white gown, combed her hair the best way possible and waited at the Dahila´s castle main hall, seated on a chair by Lune´s right side. Though her looks were amazing, she had something on her face that betrayed a deep feeling of sadness and pain.

After some minutes, that seemed like years to Alair, Nial was announced by the guards and taken to the castle´s main hall. At the first glimpse of him, she knew her fate was already sealed, she couldn´t hide her tears. Nial entered the hall hand-in-hand with Laya.

"Lune, I came here to announce my decision. Though you and I were enemies until yesterday, now we are at peace and I treat you with all the respect and consideration I have. I was honored by your proposal of me marrying your honorable sister Alair, but I cannot betray my feelings." Both Nial and Laya stared at Alair, who was weeping. Nial paused for a moment, Laya swallowed hard. "Though your sister is an admirable lady, I had not the opportunity of knowing her, I can´t marry her, that would not be fair. I´ll marry Laya and honor her forever as my wife. At last, our people are joined together!"

"Our marriage will bring peace to all." Laya said these words as she stared Nial with her eyes filled with admiration and love.

"So be it, prince Nial. You have made your choice, it is your right. Honor your choice the best way you can."

The happy couple left thanked Lune and left. Alair, in tears, left the main hall crying, desperate. She would never see Nial again, as they left the purple moon on the same day. Alair was facing the greatest shame a Layan woman could face. She was rejected as a spoil of war. If marrying Nial was not the thing she wanted most in her life, being rejected by him meant eternal shame. No one would marry her. She would be treated as an object, a thing to be shameful for. Her name would never be mentioned anymore outside Dahila. She´d never be allowed to meet anyone. She was just a filthy object, that could not be thrown away, but that caused such a great shame that everyone wished it just didn't exist. Alair wished she had died in captivity.


	3. Many Years Later

A spaceship arrived at the purple moon with new visitors. The group consisted of Adan and Gwyn, sons of Nial and Laya, plus the always loyal androids Mieu and Wren. They were taken to Lune for an audience.

"I´m deeply honored by your visit, prince Adan. In the past, your valiant father defeated me and married Laya, setting our worlds at piece. But once again, evil stalks our world, Adan. I am sending Kara to accompany your group. She has my Lune slicer, I think you will need it. I´d join your group myself, but I trust my daughter and think she is best fit to help you. Please, take care of her."

"Don't worry, honorable Lune, I'll treat your daughter as if she were my sister. We will defeat this evil force and return here eventually."

"I trust you, Adan."

The group stayed for some days in the purple moon to rest and prepare themselves for the most important battle in a thousand years. During the night preceding their departure, Adan was surprised by someone calling him from a room that was always locked during their stay.

"Adan! Come here, please!"

A bit surprised, Adan followed the orders and entered the room. As he entered, the door was shut behind him.

"Are you sure no one has seen you?"

"I... believe so." Adan was still surprised. He turned his face and met a beautiful green-haired woman, holding a candle to light the room.

"Oh, Adan... you are so handsome. You have your mother's face."

"Thanks."

"Don't you know me? I'm Alair, Lune's sister."

"Aunt Alair! I can't believe it!"

"Shhhh! Nobody can know you've been here, otherwise I'm screwed. Come, sit here by my side."

Adan reluctantly sat beside Alair. Though he had heard many times about her in the past, he was used to think of her as a middle-aged woman, forgetting that the Layan women at their forties looked the same as they looked at their twenties, as his own mother. The only thing that differed in her appearance from the woman his father had known was that her eyes expressed pain and sorrow instead of hope and joy.

"We were told you were..."

"Sick. That is what my brother always tells everybody. I've never been sick."

"So why are you kept locked here?"

"I'll explain that to you. But first of all, I've heard Kara will join you. I trust you as the son of our dear Laya and honorable king Nial. A long time ago, your father rescued me. I'm sure you can protect my niece, Kara."

"I'll protect her as if she were my own sister."

"I've seen through my window that you have grown quite a liking to her."

"Well... yeah..." Adan blushed.

"Don't worry, it is fine." Alair said so rubbing Adan's arm in a friendly way and then taking his hands on hers. "I'm glad to see her so happy with you."

"Thanks..." Adan blushed further.

"I have called you here, Adan, to make you swear me one thing."

"Swear?" Adan was surprised.

"Yes. Please, swear to me that, no matter what happens between you and Kara, always treat her like a woman, like a lady, with respect."

"Oh, you shall not worry about that..."

"Please, swear that to me." Alair eyes shone with the expectation.

"I swear... aunt Alair... I'll always treat her as my sister..."

"Thanks..." Alair released a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Adan." Alair wiped a tear which was rolling down her cheek.

"Aunt Alair..."

"Listen, Adan, it is very important for me, as I consider Kara as my own daughter. You know, my brother Lune, he is not a bad man, but he is handing you Kara as spoils of the war."

"What? I can't understand that."

"You know your father defeated my brother a long time ago. My brother consider your people as our conquerors and considers his own daughter as your right, as son of the conqueror."

"Really? You are scaring me, aunt Alair."

"Look, Adan, have you heard about Maia?"

"Wasn't her my grandpa's ex-fiancée?"

"Yes, she was Rhys ex-fiancée. Do you know what happened to her?"

"No. Sometimes grandpa and grandma talk about her, but it looks like they have never had news from her after they've got married. They still refer to her in Landen as _the most beautiful flower of the world_."

"That is the way they called her back then in Layan lands. If I tell you what happened to her, do you promise to never, ever mention that to your grandpa."

"Oh, aunt Alair, you are scaring me." Adan was very shocked by Alair's behavior.

"Promise me."

"I promise..."

"When your grandfather defeated king Cille in battle, he had to concede victory, but he still hated Orakians. He didn't offer Maia to Rhys because she loved your grandfather or because she was his fiancée, but because he considered her spoils of war. In his mind, your grandfather, as the conqueror, had the right to take everything, including his daughter."

"That is terrible!"

"There is something worse than being offered as spoils of war. It is to be rejected as spoils of war. It is the greatest shame a Layan woman can endure."

"My grandpa told me he thought she had married that cousin who helped him back them."

"Lyle? Oh, no man would touch a rejected woman."

"Wasn't she Cille's heiress?"

"It doesn't matter, no Layan man would ever shame himself by having anything to do with a rejected spoil of war. The day your grandparents left was the last time princess Maia has seen the sunlight."

"What?" Adan was very shocked.

"Shhh! If they discover you here, it will be me who will never see the sunlight anymore!"

"Sorry, aunt..."

"She was locked in the castle dungeon because she was a source of shame for her father. Poor Maia, she became crippled with sickness, she had rotten alive in that dungeon... she didn't live to her eighteenth birthday..."

"I can't believe that!"

"They say she moaned every day, all day long, in pain, but her father never cared about her. She was locked in a cell with no windows, only a small gate to pass the food through. After many months of suffering, the guards noticed that she had not moaned anymore, neither had she touched the food for five days, so they decided to open the cell gates to see if she was dead."

"Poor Maia..."

"They say when they opened the cell gate, they have seen Maia's body rotting, inside a large pool formed by the blood she has been throwing up for weeks. Yet, she was still alive. They say one of the guards immediately hanged himself and the other fled the castle, saying he had just seen the image of the hell. No one had courage to return to the cell, so king Cille went there himself, torched the cell and locked the gates again."

"How can a man do that to his own daughter?"

"It is not over yet. They say the fire was extinguished by itself after some hours and the king ordered guards to return to the cell and seal it. Then, the guards started hearing low wails of pain inside the cell. The king, desperate, ordered the cell to be filled with molten iron. No one wanted to do the evil work, so he ordered workers to come with him and he himself filled it with molten iron to bury Maia for once and for all. They say they could still hear her moaning for a long time. There is even a legend among Layan folk who says she is still alive and that you can still her her moans."

"That cannot be true! I've never heard such a thing in my life."

"But, apart from her still being alive, that was true! They did it because she was a rejected spoil of war. She was considered the lowest thing, the devil herself."

"But she didn't do anything..."

"That is how the Layan consider their women. Of course king Cille was mad, but every women rejected by a conqueror has to face humiliation and suffering for the rest of her life."

"But mother is a Layan! That can't be true!"

"Holy Laya would never approve it, but I don't know why Layans ended up acting like that."

"I'll never treat a woman like that. Grandpa must never learn about that, he would commit suicide himself!" Adan was deeply disturbed by the story. "Just because the conqueror rejected the woman... Alair!"

"Huh?"

"My father... turned... you... down..."

"Yes."

"So that means..."

"Yes." Alair looked strangely resigned and calm.

"Oh, no!"

"Why do you think Lune told you I was sick?"

"That can't be true..."

"It is. That is why I've never paid a visit to you. Lune wouldn't let me out of the castle and would always tell you I was very sick to travel."

"I can't believe that, all those years we always believed you were facing health problems."

"When you father turned me down, I was imprisoned in this castle. Not like poor Maia, but he has never let me out again. Since that day, I've never talked to anyone besides him and the castle servants, you are the first, Adan."

"No, Alair..."

"I used to be treated very badly, as an object. Then Lune married. Kara's mother died when she was still a baby. Lune told me to help him to raise little Kara and that gave my life a new meaning."

"That is so sad, Alair. I don't know what to say."

"I've done my best to teach Kara to be a great woman. The woman I wanted to be, if I could."

"You have done a pretty good job."

"Thanks, Adan. That is why I beg you to not let it happen with Kara."

"Don't worry. I'll treat her as I treat my sister Gwyn. And I'll do something about your situation, I swear you, aunt Alair."

"Adan..."

"I'll ask my mom to press your brother to stop this madness."

"Please, don't..."

"When I vanquish the ultimate evil, I'll return to free you. You are such a good woman, you don't deserve to waste your life here."

"No, Adan..."

"You are still pretty. Any Orakian would want to marry a woman like you... even me..."

"No, Adan..."

"I'd marry you if that would set you free."

"No, Adan, please, don't." Alair stood up and opened the door. "You have already given me what I wanted from you. I'm sure you will treat my dear Kara as she deserves to be treated. Farewell, Adan."

"Aunt Alair..."

"Farewell, Adan. Thanks."

Adan reluctantly stood up and exited the room. The door was closed immediately after he left. He waited for some time, but the door never opened again. He was feeling vert bad to learn the truth about Alair and other Layan woman, a mix of anger and sadness. He also had a strong resolution in his mind: to treat the charming princess Kara the best way he could.

Inside the room, Alair let the tears flow freely from her eyes. "_Laya, holy Laya! I think I've made it. I'll be the last living spoil of war. I hope people of the future will eventually forget such a thing existed in the past. Thanks, Laya, thanks." _


End file.
